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Influential Think Tank Warns of Robotic Proliferation

Former Navy Undersecretary Bob Work joined the CNAS think tank last year. He’s now presenting a new report [PDF] making the case that it’s a matter of when rather than if before the emergence of a “new war-fighting regime in which guided munitions and battle networking has fully proliferated and unmanned and autonomous systems have become central to combat”.

UTC’s commercial sales offset MIL decline

United Technologies closed its FY 2013 with sales up 9% to $62.6B, mostly thanks to acquisitions and strong commercial aerospace growth. The military segment on the other hand lost 8% overall, with sales at Sikorsky down 13% to $1.9B. Q4 earnings call [PDF].

And Who Will Pay Shipping Costs?

Euro Cyber

French Defense Minister Jean Yves le Drian announced that about 1.5 billion euros ($2B) over the next 5 years will be allocated to cyber defense, in light of the booming number of “significant computing incidents” targeting the ministry. Details on how the budget will be spent are still fuzzy, and that is a lot of money relative to what will be spent on conventional equipment. Zone Militairehas more [in French].

No SOFA to Rest in the Maldives

Precision Strike

According to the Algemeiner the video below was inadvertently taken by a security camera in the Gaza strip while an Israeli strike pinpointed a suspected terrorist on his motorbike in the middle of traffic: